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news
Horse rider (licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 by Louis on Flickr)Woman thrown from horse after bike rider struck it calls for cyclists to ride responsibly
A Hertfordshire woman who says she was thrown from her horse when a group of cyclists came round the corner on a gravel track has called for people on bikes to ride responsibly and look out for horse riders.
The Herts Advertiser reports that Carolyn Tuck, aged 62, was riding her horse on a bridleway at Bricket Wood, near St Albans, when six cyclists, in her words, “came around the blind corner at 20mph.”
She said her 20-year-old horse, Chino, was struck by one of the cyclists, causing it to bolt, which resulted in her being thrown out of the saddle.
“They nearly killed me,” she said. “They came around this bend and crashed into me and my horse. My horse chucked me over the hedge and left me for dead.
“They carried on, and one bloke couldn't get past. My friends all bolted off and disappeared on the horizon, and I was staggering down the hill – semi-conscious – and this guy is saying ‘Can I get past you?’.
“They came around the blind corner at 20mph, on gravel and didn't even anticipate that something could be coming around the corner. It could’ve been a post office van, a child ... anything. But they hit me on my horse.”
She said that some cyclists, such as the ones she encountered, “just don’t care,” but acknowledged, “most cyclists are fairly good and kind,” adding, “I don't want to punish good cyclists, I just want them to be aware to not treat horses like they are machines.”
In 2018, the British Horse Society and Cycling UK partnered on a video showing cyclists how to pass horses safely, and published a leaflet containing guidance on the issue.
The collaboration was launched after footage emerged on social media of a competitor descending at speed during the bike leg of the Windsor Triathlon striking a horse as he undertook the animal and its rider.
At the time the video was launched, Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK, said: “Every time a cyclist encounters a horse, there are three brains involved: the cyclist’s, the rider’s and the horse’s.
“Many people aren’t familiar with horses, and there can be confusion on what they should do when overtaking on a bike.
“Cyclists may already know to pass wide and slow when it’s safe to do so – but they could still startle the horse unless the horse and rider are made aware of your presence.
“Generally, if a cyclist startles a horse, it is due to simple lack of awareness that a horse needs more time to react, which is why Cycling UK is pleased to be helping the BHS promote the consideration and courtesy message of ’Be nice, say hi’.”
Alan Hiscox, director of safety at the BHS, commented: “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Cycling UK as both groups are vulnerable road users and will benefit from working together to share the roads.
“We are encouraging riders to respond positively to cyclists who pass with consideration and reciprocate their courtesy.
“Horses are flight animals and may react to anything they are unsure of. By promoting the ‘Be nice, say hi’ message, we hope more cyclists will appreciate the potential risk they pose.”
He added: “If all road users are considerate and mindful of one another we can reduce the number of incidents between horses, cyclists and vehicles.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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51 comments
"Carolyn added that gaggles of cyclists - sometimes in groups of up to 30 people - come to the area where she keeps her horses at all hours, including at 2am.
During these small hours, cyclists have been seen climbing fences and wading through knee-deep floodwater with their bikes."
Who is up at 2am to check all this ?
Her by the sounds of it.
So apparently they are coming from a really nice place surrounded by nice countryside to watch her run around a field and to unintentionally poison her horses.
Did she bang her head in the cyclist/horse incident?
Sounds like the cyclists were being twats and Henrietta lost her hockey stick somewhere. She's right that cyclists should take care around horses (in fact we should treat horses the same way we would like drivers to treat us) but Henrietta seems to be exaggerating just a little.
Yes, hard to say what exactly happened from that account, but it does seem strange that they couldn't get past after she'd been thrown over a hedge and left for dead? That said I'm always very careful around horses knowing how unpredictable and dangerous they can be.
I read that as the horse leaving her for dead. Moral of the story: never trust a horse.
They're evil - with their swishy tails and their clippety-cloppety hooves...
yes - far more distracting than a noisy freehub.
They should have taken more care although 20 mph seems a bit high unless it was downhill.
Don't think a post office van should be on a bridleway though.
The bridleway was apparently running along a gravel track - it's quite possible that that would be an access track to houses, that a postal worker would drive up to make their deliveries.
I wonder what the protocol is for a van? Normally on blind bends you would sound the horn, but that could make things worse.
So having actually clicked through to the source article, it transpires that it wasn't (necessarily) a bridleway, nor was it a gravel track - excellent work at garbling things by road.cc there.
She says she has encountered poor behaviour by cyclists on bridleways, but not that this incident happened on one.
She also says that they came round the corner 'on gravel', but I think by that she meant loose bits of tarmac, given the picture of the bend in question, which is a badly-maintained stretch of single lane tarmac lane.
So the people on cycles were supposed to be going around that corner at 20mph? I can't imagine wanting to go faster than 5mph on a road like that!
Maybe not as low as 5,mph but maybe not as high as 20. We don't know how fast she was going and I doubt she can judge speeds precisely.
Seems very plausible that some Muppets came round the corner too fast and not expecting anyone there. Don't we see this often with cars and vans ?
Still be interested to know what she would have done if this post office van came round the corner.
I think a lot of people who don't regularly ride a bike have that problem. "He was riding at 40mph!" was a quote from a recent news story, IIRC. Non-riders think every cyclist is travelling "far too fast" and they just make up a number to go with it...
I feel her story is genuine, and whereas it is possible, easy in fact, to do a Perry Mason on it I don't think it's necessary. I'd take it at face value that she had a thoroughly unpleasant experience with a bunch of idiots - she says herself that it's not typical, but none the less she's been badly shaken up.
I'd take it more at face value if I could follow what was described after the cyclists hit the horse bit.
If you were thrown from your horse which then bolted after being hit by cyclist/s I don't suppose your account would be exactly coherent.
no maybe not, but if I was a journalist interviewing someone for a piece in the paper and writing an article about what had happened to them, Id probably have made it sound alot more coherent than that. but thats just me.
cyclist hits horse, horse throws rider, its not exactly a complex story
She was with other horses (and riders), not just her. All the horses bolted when she was hit with only hers throwing her off then running home. She followed after it down the lane again and a totally unrelated cyclist to the original ones came down the road and asked if he could get past as she was on the very narrow path.
I have taken some liberties like it was another cyclist as for her to recover, and get back up the path would have been 5 mins minimum. I won't mention why if her friends were there and all of there horses were also spooked, why there is no corraborated testimony though.
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